The lost world of ‘Kumari Kandam’ –Revisited and relived.
By h e m a n t h - September 03, 2011
Year 2065. I suddenly wake up after a sound sleep. I rise from my comfy Nexcruzer bed that makes constant motions to guide a peaceful sleep. I see that it’s already 9 in the morning, and I didn't realize that it’s so late. My Adaptive Room-Ambience-Conditioner also had to be blamed since it had continuously adjusted the room temperature and lightings over the night, based on my tiredness- calculating that I needed a long sleep. It was definitely a tough and tiring Friday, yesterday. I quickly rise up and walk to my multi-utility LED TV/Computer panel and switch it off, to see through it and peek outside of my bedroom.
Sunlight is reflected by all the steel-clad skyscrapers around my apartment in the 148th floor. Squinting my eyes, I see flocks of tourists and local people accompanied by their kids board into a Street-zoomer transit vehicle. The glass surface of all the sides of the street-zoomer displays a Flash-X video ad of something called “Trip to the legendary Kumari Kandam”. Within seconds, the whole ad is neatly repeated in Tamil. Apparently it’s a shuttle service to a lost continent called Kumari Kandam or Lemuria continent which submerged into the Indian Ocean over thousands of years ago. The whole world has been going gaga about this place since recently. Remembering that my Emerald Corporate universal benefits card already entitles me to take this trip, I get ready quickly and wait for the next street zoomer to arrive.
As I board the 09:42 street-zoomer, I see that there are almost 400 people seated already, each of them seeming very excited about their trip to this lost land. Within seconds as I board the vehicle, my RFID zoomer-pass beeps automatically and I reach to a free seat nearby. Having no idea about what this place is, I join the bandwagon just to experience the fad with the rest of the crazy people in the world. Apparently it’s a two-hour journey, and it was just two minutes ago when I learnt that the street-zoomer would stop to a conduit which would lead to a Kumari Kandam Submarine. As I sit back with my fingers crossed about this trip, a 3D laser show (over dry ice) organized inside the street-zoomer starts up with a historical introduction of this lost continent:
“There had been many legendary cities that today’s world has lost in time. Some of those were the city of Atlantis, and the city of Dwaraka that is mentioned in Mahabharata. But out of all these, there existed one huge land mass to the south of today’s Indian peninsula extending from Kanyakumari in the north, and its sides touching as far to the west as Madagascar and as far to the east as Australia. This huge continent of the Tamil people was called Kumari Kandam or the Lemuria continent that was swallowed by the seas, and eventually lost forever.
Hundreds of thousand years ago, continents started drifting, and different continents were formed. And after a much long time, the earliest human beings were born on the earth about 400,000 years ago. During the end of the last Ice age, earth’s temperature started rising, large icy masses and glaciers started melting, and thus sea levels started rising. During this period, 12000 years ago, India's Dravidian peninsula was swallowed by the ever rising seas. Various oceanographic researches have shown that the sea level in the Indian peninsula has risen by 100 meters within the past 14,500 years. There had been three major episodes of sea level fluctuations resulting in the submergence of the Kumari continent which existed to the south of Kanya Kumari (About 14,500 years ago, Sri Lanka was connected with Peninsular India!)
The area had been ruled by the Pandya kings, and there are lots of scattered literary evidences to this lost land of the Tamils. As per Adiyarkunallar, a huge landmass extending from Kanyakumari to a distance of 700 kavatams (unknown, obsolete unit) got sunken in the sea. During this civilization, Kumari Kandam land was divided into 49 territories (nadu). It had mountain ranges, and also had two main rivers- Pahruli and Kumari. "
"The earliest civilization that we know of today is the Sumerian civilization established in Mesopotamia (today’s Iraq) around 4000 BC. After this were the Egyptian civilization, and then the Indus valley civilization. But the Tamil civilization around Kumari Kandam had been much earlier than this, which would put it to the first in the time scale of civilization of mankind. What is even more interesting is that, many world-renowned researchers also claim to have deciphered the Indus script to be Tamil! 12
As per Nakkirar’s Iraiyanaar Akaporul the three Tamil Sangams (Academies of Tamil poets) functioned for 9990 odd years!
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However, very sadly, all that is extant today is the Tamil literature works from the third Sangam. Everything else is lost in the sea, and in time; the people of the civilization were swallowed by the seas. It’s a tragedy of a huge magnitude. The quality of life of the ancient Tamils in Kumari Kandam should have been extraordinarily sublime". As I got myself submerged into the poignant historical introduction of the magnificent lost continent, the 3D show suddenly went off, and the street-zoomer stopped to a sudden halt. An announcement followed: “However, fortunately, some significant parts of the Kumari Kandam have been preserved and restored, thanks to technological advancements, and most importantly because of the vision, perseverance and passion of some individuals- a trip to the magnificent world of Kumari Kandam is possible today! Please follow the signs and walk towards the front.”
It’s been exactly two hours now, and along with the rest of the crowd, I walk into the conduit that leads to the Kumari Kandam submarine, with a melancholic mood and a heavy heart. Within seconds, the huge submarine with its fully transparent walls starts moving slowly inside Indian Ocean’s dark blue waters. With a deep sigh, I lean on the glass wall of the submarine with my hands pressed on it. As I unblinkingly stare through the glass wall, I start encountering places that I couldn’t have ever imagined in my life- height of magnificence- treasure haven – quaintly exotic palaces, temples, and squares. Some portions of the submarine’s glass walls are overlaid with Augmented Reality (AR), rendering how magnificent this place could have been, lively with ancient Tamilians, in the richest of ancient Tamil tradition! As I stare breathlessly, my jaws drop, and I’m inexplicably pulled into the world of first Tamil Sangam era on the Kumari Kandam…
